MGT10001

Individual presentation assignment brief (20%)

Each student is required to prepare a 5-minutes presentation based on ONE of the weekly tutorial
topics as listed below:

• External Environment
• Planning
• Organising
• Controlling
• Leading
• Motivating

Each student is to select a real-life organisation that they have actual experience with (e.g. as a
customer or employee).

1) Briefly describe your experience with the company e.g. which products do you use as a
customer/what job did you perform as an employee and for how long.

2) Evaluate what the company is doing well and not doing well in terms of your selected topic. Use
your own experience with the company as the starting point for your evaluation. You may also use
secondary research if available (e.g. websites, news articles). Link your observations to the theory
from the lectures.

3) Imagine you are the manager of the business. Provide your own recommendations to improve using
the theory from the lectures/other management references.

Examples of issues to consider for each topic:

• External Environment – Does the organisation consider and evaluate the current external
environment? You may comment on other factors that can be the future considerations for
the organisation.
• Planning – Do you think the organisation plans effectively to ensure good customer service
(operational/tactical planning)? How well does it compete against competitors (strategic
planning)?
• Organising – Does the organisation carry out work specialisation (division of labour)
effectively? You may also comment on other concepts like how effectively it uses
centralisation/decentralisation, mechanistic/organic design, functional/divisional
departmentalisation etc.
• Controlling – How effectively does the organisation control the quality of its
products/employee performance e.g. use of feedforward/concurrent/feedback controls,
control process, external/internal controls
• Leading – How effectively does the top management of the organisation provide direction and
inspiration to its employees to achieve organisational goals? Use relevant leadership theories
to support your answer.
 • Motivating – How motivated are the employees of the organisation? How effective are the
motivational methods used by the company? Support your answer with relevant motivational
theories.

Note:

1. The above issues are just a sample of possible discussion points. Try to come up with more points
of your own based on the theory from the lectures.

2. If you are unable to gather information on some of the issues, just give your own recommendations
about what you think the company should do.

3. Recommendations should include management concepts from the lectures/other management

references.

Example for topic of planning: Selected organisation is a clothing boutique.

1) Observations linked to theory on planning.

• Able to keep up with the latest fashion trends (good external environment analysis –
sociocultural).
• Sometimes out of stock for popular items, shortage of staff to serve customers (poor
operational planning).

2) Provide your own recommendations linked to the theory from the lectures.

• Continue to keep updated about external environment (sociocultural trends and competitors).
• Improve operational planning to ensure sufficient stocks and staff.
• Practise contingency planning – use part-time staff in case full-time staff resign at short notice;
have more than one supplier.

Presentation requirements:

• Provide a hardcopy of your presentation slides to your tutor just before you present.
• First slide: show name and ID. Last slide: reference list.
• Maximum time allocated is 5 minutes. Significantly exceeding this time will attract penalty for
time management.
• Please refer to the marking rubric on Blackboard for details of marking criteria.
• Dress code: Smart casual

Note: Individual slides or answers will not be checked as this will be done during marking of the actual
presentation. However, students may ask if they wish to clarify the assignment requirements.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

Students are expected to present in the assigned week unless there is a compelling reason (e.g.
hospitalisation) supported with documentary evidence (e.g. medical report). The tutor must be
informed by email within 48 hours of missing the assessment. Personal reasons such as travelling are
not considered as proper justification for missing the assessment. Alternatively, you may swap with a
student who is due to present in a different week if you plan to be away during your assigned week.

Students who miss the assigned date for presentation without notification/justification and wish to
present at a later date will be subject to a penalty of 10% per day for each day that the presentation
is overdue. There will be no further opportunities for make-up presentations after Week 9.
Marking Rubrics